


Some Starless Night

by DaisukeKazamatsuri



Category: One Piece
Genre: Bottling Up Feelings, Doing things to make others happy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, No Sex, Romance, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 15:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7624462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisukeKazamatsuri/pseuds/DaisukeKazamatsuri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luffy sings over the quiet water every night.  The Straw Hats have gotten used to it, but Law has no idea what brought this on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Starless Night

**Author's Note:**

> So this was just supposed to be a brief scene of "Straw Hats watch Luffy sing out his depression and Law actually comforts him" and it turned into...this thing. Oh well.

"Save it for a rainy day,  
Save it for a rainy day" 

The first time Law heard the song float over the waters, he'd been aboard the Thousand Sunny. Keeping watch over Caesar Clown was a self-designated job, but Law wasn't ready to sleep yet, not really. The night had been clear and calm, warm but not hot, and so completely different from the events of the day that it felt sort of unnatural to the surgeon.

But then the haunting tune had risen over the quiet sounds of the minuscule waves that crashed against the sides of the ship. He only caught the end of it, but it felt less like the song had woken him and more like the alert presences of the Straw Hats had simply triggered his Observation Haki.

Caesar Clown slept on, ignorant and unaware.

\-----

The next time Law heard it, it wasn't sung. Brook was tuning his instrument as they docked at Dressrosa, pulling out the notes and adjusting the strings as the rest of the Straw Hats let their chatter die away. The crew continued docking, but Brook's playing of the tune, somewhere between nostalgic, happy, and deeply, strikingly, painful, rang out over the natural noise of the world around them.

It almost felt as if the song were humming its way out of the Underworld itself, and Law wondered how much of that thought came from Brook being a living skeleton and how much was the song itself.

\-----

Law hadn't questioned the song the first times he had heard it, had dismissed it as not his business and not his place. After all, he'd been expecting to die, one way or another, and even if Luffy had survived the ordeal, Law would just have opened a wound that was unnecessary.

So when the chaos of the Birdcage has passed, and Luffy collapses next to him in exhaustion, Law doesn't have the energy to ask. Instead, he just listens as the song drifts out of Luffy's mouth with a relieved and happy note to it, and takes note to ask at a later time.

\-----

Then they get swept up in more things, and it takes a moment for everything to catch up with the world. Sanji rescued, Law reunited, party thrown, and Law assumes it was just something that Luffy did once in a while.

He's proven wrong though, when the party dies down and only a few are left awake -- Zoro and Nami having out-drunk everyone else, and Luffy just winding down, Law himself feeling his insomnia kick in again -- and the song drifts out over the sound of the waves and the forest again.

_Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket_  
_Never let it fade away_  
_Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket_  
_Save it for a rainy day_

Law stares over at the other pirate captain, perplexed and worried at the deep sadness that runs through the words. In his periphery, he notices both the first mate's and navigator's gazes turn to settle on their captain.

_For love may come and tap you on the shoulder_

Luffy's voice falters, the first time since Law heard it in Dressrosa, but the third time Law had ever heard it so steeped in grief. Luffy has to restart the stanza.

_For love may come and tap you on the shoulder_  
_Some starless night_  
_And just in case you feel you want to hold her_  
_You'll have a pocketful of starlight_

More of the Straw Hats are stirring now, Sanji exiting the galley on the Sunny, clearly in the middle of cleanup, Chopper lifting his head from where he and Usopp had passed out after dancing the night away. The other pirates just stare at their captain, some showing sympathy and others simple understanding. Law feels like he's seeing something private and intimate, not meant for him, but Zoro locks his eye on him, and simply nods. Law's not sure how he feels about that.

_Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket_  
_Never let it fade away_  
_Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket_  
_Save it for a rainy day_

Usopp himself has stirred now, as has Franky, and Franky's arm moving slightly seems to wake Robin, though she looks far too aware to have really been asleep. Brook stands, but doesn't reach for his instrument, seemingly giving his captain free reign of the song. The Straw Hat crew seem to know not to disturb their captain's song, now completely laden with grief. Law wonders what could possibly be so strong that a captain's own crew, especially a crew like this one, would have to let him take the burden by himself.

_For when your troubles--_

This time the grief overwhelms the line, and Law lurches forward slightly before catching himself, reaching with one arm but stopping. The surgeon stares at the arm, somehow seeing the scar from its reattachment through his sweatshirt sleeve. Luffy takes a deep breath, and starts the stanza again.

_For when your troubles start multiplyin'_  
_And they just might_  
_It's easy to forget them without tryin'_  
_With just a pocketful of starlight_

This time when Luffy takes a breath, it rattles with suppressed sobs, and Law hadn't noticed Nami move. Suddenly his body lurches forward, and he stumbles in behind Luffy with enough noise to make the other captain look up at him. Law almost doesn't notice the arm sprouting from the ground in front of them, pointing insistently at the ship. Law senses that Sanji has returned to the beach with the rest, and he can take a hint. He casts a quiet Room and pops the two of them on deck.

Luffy finishes his song without missing a beat, his eyes staring into Law's with such emotion that all Law can do is lean down and hold him tight to his chest.

_Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket_  
_Never let it fade away_  
_Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket_  
_Save it for a rainy day_  
_Save it for a rainy day_

Luffy finally, _finally_ lets go, out of view of his nakama and his new friends, for whom he'd had to stay strong, in front of whom he could not waver, for fear of losing their trust in his infallibility. Instead, he pours his grief into this Allied Captain, Surgeon of Death, and Law lets him.

Because no matter how long you spend singing out your hope, and your grief, without someone to share it with you there was nowhere for it to go. So Law lets Luffy expel some of it into him, to relieve some of the burden of the loss of a family member. The two of them are the only ones who sleep on the Sunny that night.

\-----

Luffy tells Law much later, when more battles have been fought and the Alliance has been solidified into something much more, the story of his two brothers. Law listens intently as they lie lazily in bed, naked and sated and happy in each other's company, as his lover tells of his childhood.

When he gets to the treefort, Luffy tells Law about the song that Sabo taught him and Ace, the one that melted away all of their worries and their problems in the dead of night. The one that they used when Ace's narcolepsy had taken up too much of the day and he was left wide awake in the middle of the night. The one they used when Sabo's nightmares of his homelife took over the sweet dreams of freedom at Grey Terminal. The one they used when Luffy was pulled out of the water and still felt like he was drowning, breaths coming short and chest tight despite the lack of water in his lungs.

And then he tells of Sabo's apparent death, the burning of the Terminal, and Ace's voice carrying through the forest when the pain became too sharp. Luffy's voice doing much the same when Ace's pain and anger were too strong for his voice to leave his throat. The rare times they sung together in the middle of the night.

Ace's promise comes as both a surprise and a bit of pain for Law, understanding what the words eventually meant to Luffy. But Luffy then speaks of seeing his brother again in Alabasta, and while Luffy had sung the song every night since Ace had left three years prior, little boat or Going Merry or forest beside the massive dump that was home, he let Ace sing it to him in that desert country instead. Then, the night before Ace left, they sang together, and though the Straw Hat crew that was present had no idea what it had meant, they were happy to hear the song from both brothers.

And then they got separated, the same day he had met Law, had nearly not known about the execution until after. And even when Luffy made it all the way to the platform, even when they were making their escape, it hadn't been enough. Law had seen the damage, physical and mental, that that War had done to Luffy first hand, but only now was he seeing how deep that scar went.

So when Luffy's story moved to meeting back up with Sabo, alive and well after all, and hearing the blond's new, deeper voice sing to him through the haze of his healing sleep after Dressrosa, Law had a new idea in mind. He said nothing of it to Luffy just then, but he kept it floating there until they went their separate ways again.

\-----

The denden mushi number had been acquired from Robin and Law was back on his submarine, making the call, when he realized that he had never actually met the man he was calling.

"Hello?" The snail had been picked up before Law could second guess himself, however, and now he had to go through with it.

"Hello, is this Revolutionary Sabo?" The surgeon asked instead of hanging up.

The snail gave a confused expression in response, "Yes, who is this?"

"I am Trafalgar Law, Captain of the Heart Pirates. I'm allies with your brother, Luffy."

"Oh?" The snail's expression shifted to sly curiosity, "And what would the Surgeon of Death want with a Revolutionary such as myself? You're not, perhaps, declaring a separation with my little brother, are you?"

Law could feel his features solidify into a flat look, "As if I could even if I wanted to."

Sabo burst into laughter on the other end of the line, "True, true. So what _is_ it that you want, then?"

Law felt his nerves settle into his throat, "I wanted to know if you could teach me something."

Now the snail looked perplexed, "Hah?"

Law swallowed, but the nerves seemed to climb up instead of follow his throat down into his stomach, "I was hoping you could teach me a song."

Sabo's face apparently stayed perplexed for a few more moments before blinking into understanding, "Oh!" Then a happy grin spread across his face, "Of course! I can certainly teach that one to my brother-in-law."

Sabo was sworn never to mention Law's sputtering at the title to Luffy.

\-----

A new tradition was started then, so that anytime the Heart Pirates were sailing with the Straw Hats, two voices rose over the quiet nights, and both crews let themselves be lulled to sleep by the happy cadence of the voices as they took on the world.

"For love may come and tap you on the shoulder,  
Some starless night,  
And just in case you feel you want to hold her,  
You'll have a pocketful of starlight"

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't actually read/seen all of Dressrosa yet, nevermind Zou or the Vinsmoke arc, I hope I didn't screw it up too much? I've also never written Sabo before. Eh heheh forgive me?


End file.
